CHITTAGONG: Environment Department Sunday fined Sultana ship breaking yard Tk 7 lakh on charge of cutting ships under risky environment and causing environmental pollution.

Earlier, the Enforcement Division of the Environment Department, led by its Director Mohammad Munir Chowdhury, conducted a drive in the scrap shipyard, owned by Shawkat Ali.

Four workers were killed and four others injured in an oil tanker explosion at Sultana Ship Breaking Yard at Sonaichhari in sitakunda on July 12.

Munir Chowdhury said the yard owner was fined Tk 7 lakh and directed to control pollution and take proper security measures for the workers.

According to the statistics of Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), a private development organization that works on the ship breaking yard workers, around 1,200 workers were killed and 6,500 other injured at the scrap shipyards of Sitakunda over the last 27 years from 1982.

Environmentalist Sharif Chowhan thinks such drives should be continued in future to reduce accidents and deaths of workers in ship breaking factories.

He told banglanews24.com.bd that ship breaking yards should have to be brought under specific policy.

BDST: 1950 HRS, AUG 29, 2010